Table Of ContentEmbedded Librarians
Moving Beyond One-Shot Instruction
Edited by Cassandra Kvenild and Kaijsa Calkins
Association of College and Research Libraries
A division of the American Library Association
Chicago 2011
Copyright ©2011 by the American Library Association. All rights reserved except
those which may be granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision
Act of 1976.
This electronic edition is based on the 2011 printed edition by The Association
of College and Research Libraries imprinted with the Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication information below.
New ISBNs
Kindle: 978-0-8389-9330-9
ePub: 978-0-8389-9331-6
ePDF: 978-0-8389-9332-3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Embedded librarians : moving beyond one-shot instruction / edited by Cassandra
Kvenild and Kaijsa Calkins.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-8389-8587-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Academic libraries--Relations
with faculty and curriculum. 2. Information literacy--Study and teaching (Higher)
3. Research--Methodology--Study and teaching (Higher) 4. Library orientation for
college students. 5. Academic libraries--United States--Case studies. I. Kvenild, Cas-
sandra. II. Calkins, Kaijsa.
Z675.U5E45 2011
027.7--dc23
2011014802
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Contents
Acknowledgements v
introduction vii
Part OnE: IntrOduCtIOn
one 3
A Recent History of Embedded Librarianship: Collaboration and Partnership
Building with Academics in Learning and Research Environments
Matthew Brower
two 17
Beyond Instruction: Creating New Roles for Embedded Librarians
David Shumaker
Part twO: EMBEddIng In thE FIrSt-YEar ExPErIEnCE
three 35
A Faculty Perspective: Strengthening At-Risk Students’ Transition to Academic
Research through Embedded Librarianship
Rick Fisher and April Heaney
Four 47
Embedding a Library Program in the First-Year Curriculum: Experiences and
Strategies of an Australian Case Study
Craig Milne and Jennifer Thomas
Part thrEE: EMBEddIng InStruCtIOn OnLInE
Five 63
Replacing Face-to-Face Information Literacy Instruction: Offering the Embedded
Librarian Program to All Courses
Ann Schroeder
six 79
Instruction Where and When Students Need It: Embedding Library Resources
into Learning Management Systems
Emily Daly
Part FOur: EMBEddIng In thE dISCIPLInES & aCrOSS thEM
seven 95
Embedded and Embodied: Dance Librarianship within the Academic Department
Christopher Miller
eight 107
Collaboration in Speech Communication: A Case Study in Faculty-Librarian
Collaboration to Teach Undergraduates to Write a Literature Review
Kate Gronemyer and Natalie Dollar
nine 121
A Tale of Three Disciplines: Embedding Librarians and Outcomes-based
Information Literacy Competency in Business, Biology, and Communication
Baseema Banoo Krkoska, Camille Andrews, and Jim Morris-Knower
iii
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ten 139
One University, Two Approaches: The Regis Experience with Embedded
Librarianship
Paul Betty and Martin Garnar
Part FIvE: EMBEddIng In graduatE and PrOFESSIOnaL PrOgraMS
eleven 153
Kresge Library’s Embedded Librarian Program: A Student-Centered Approach
Laura Berdish and Corey Seeman
twelve 165
More Than a One-Shot: Innovative Faculty-Librarian Collaboration
Lisa R. Coats and Bojana Beric
thirteen 185
Starring the Literature Review: An Integrative Approach
Deborah S. Garson and Eileen McGowan
Part SIx: EMBEddIng In InnOvatIvE SPaCES
Fourteen 199
Embedded Right Where the Students Live: A Librarian in the University
Residence Halls
Dallas Long
FiFteen 211
Extending Our Reach: Embedding Library Resources and Services within
Extension
Kristen Mastel
sixteen 219
Embedded Librarianship at the Claremont Colleges
Jezmynne Dene
contributors 231
iv
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acknowledgments
The editors would like to thank ACRL for publishing this book. In particular, we thank Kathryn Deiss
for her excellent guidance to two first-time editors and her thoughtful and warm advice. All of the authors
included in this volume contributed excellent ideas and many hours of writing and revision; we are over-
whelmingly grateful for their work.
We must thank our coworkers at the University of Wyoming Libraries. We especially thank Jamie Kearley,
our department head, for allowing us flexibility for our embedded work and the time we have invested in
developing this book. We also owe sincere thanks to Maggie Farrell, Dean of University Libraries and Lori
Phillips, Associate Dean of University Libraries, for providing amazing support for our travel to present at
national and international conferences.
Additionally, we are grateful to our University of Wyoming colleagues in the Department of English, the
Outreach School, and the Synergy Program for partnering with us in the embedded projects that first got
us started on the long path that led to this book.
Finally, we would like to thank our families for their love and support always.
v
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Introduction
Embedded librarians work closely over extended and other areas of the online class made sense as the
periods of time with non-librarian groups, whether most straightforward solution to an existing need.
by joining a semester-long course, maintaining an Librarians at Regis University, the Community
ongoing presence in online courses, participating College of Vermont, and at the University of Wyo-
in broad curriculum planning efforts, or joining the ming were early adopters of the embedded model in
staffs of academic departments, clinical settings, or order to reach off-campus teachers and learners. As
performing groups. Barbara Dewey coined the term the use of online course materials increases, and as
in 2004, writing: “Embedding requires more direct we see enrollment in distance courses continue to
and purposeful interaction than acting in parallel grow nationally, embedding library instruction on-
with another person, group, or activity. Overt pur- line will increasingly become the norm in academic
posefulness makes embedding an appropriate defi- libraries. Indeed, at libraries like the one described
nition of the most comprehensive collaborations for by Ann Schroeder in Chapter Five, online embed-
librarians in the higher education community.”1 ded library instruction has completely replaced tra-
Embedded librarianship is a relatively new idea ditional bibliographic instruction.
in the field, but its impact on instruction and its po- We would argue that the primary lesson learned
tential growth are already evident. By joining varied by all of the authors in this collection is that collab-
groups of patrons and assisting their research over oration is key to implementing an embedded librar-
the long haul, embedded librarians commit them- ian program. Without extensive collaboration with
selves to service in a very different way than they faculty members, with departments, with adminis-
did in traditional one-shot bibliographic instruc- trators, and with other stakeholders, successful em-
tion. In this collection, we see librarians using the bedding is impossible. In the case of online course
embedded model to become valuable collaborators, management systems, librarians have succeeded in
trusted instructors, and partners in shaping the cur- gaining access to courses by creating goodwill and
riculum and broad institutional goals beyond the forging partnerships with system administrators.
boundaries of the library. In Chapter One, librarian Creating a culture of information literacy extends
Matthew Brower traces the evolution of embedded beyond the library’s walls, and requires the par-
librarianship over the past decade and a half, pro- ticipation of students, faculty, and administrators.
viding detailed insight into early adopters of em- Including institutional stakeholders in planning to
bedded models and how they defined their work. embed librarians is crucial to success.
Many early embedding initiatives were devel- The idea of embedding online without synchro-
oped as a response to the library instruction needs nous contact extends beyond distance learning. As
of distance learners. For librarians serving off-cam- you will read in Chapter Six, Duke University Li-
pus students, the ACRL Access Entitlement Prin- braries now create a presence in the course manage-
ciple drove efforts to make library services available ment system for all of the university’s courses—if
to all, whether they teach and learn in traditional not embedding an individual librarian, then em-
classrooms or in new technological environments.2 bedding at least a library guide, a link to services,
In asynchronous settings for online instruction, and contact information. Later in the book, Kristen
embedding librarians into class discussion boards Mastel discusses how she used embedded librarian-
vii
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viii EmbEddEd Librarians: moving bEyond onE-shot instruction
ship principles to collaborate online with Exten- upper-division disciplinary courses in Health Sci-
sion services to fulfill the mission of the University ences at Monmouth University and Education at
of Minnesota, a land grant institution. Corporate Harvard, respectively. Initiatives to embed librar-
librarians use the same embedded principles to ians at the graduate level have been shown to be
connect with far-flung staff, and David Shumak- particularly successful in business schools, colleges
er makes a persuasive argument in Chapter Two of education, and the health sciences. Librarians
about how to apply lessons learned from both cor- from the University of Michigan detail in Chapter
porate and academic examples to the future of em- Eleven their embedded project working intensively
bedded librarianship. with future MBAs at the Kresge School to com-
In addition to presence in online courses, li- plete multidisciplinary action projects.
brarians are also increasing their presence in the The seemingly limitless sites for embedded
classroom. At many schools, the freshman com- librarianship are illustrated by the variety of ini-
position class provides an opportunity to include a tiatives and programs described in this book. In
librarian’s expertise in the daunting semester-long Chapter Seven, Christopher Miller describes how
process of searching, writing, revising and citing. he physically embeds himself within his discipline
Rick Fisher and April Heaney, two composition by maintaining office space in the department of
faculty, describe here the value of embedded li- dance. Another innovative physical example of
brarians to the success of their at-risk freshmen embedded librarianship is described by Jezmyne
students. Other successful initiatives within the Dene in the final chapter, where she details the
first year experience detailed in this book involve various approaches Claremont Colleges librarians
embedding librarians in Honors Programs, Writ- use to work with the many colleges served by one
ing Centers, and even the dormitories to provide centralized library.
a welcoming and constant presence of a librarian The collaboration and the partnerships devel-
for instruction and assistance during the transition oped through embedded librarianship can help
to college life. Scalability is a constant concern of open doors to providing better library services
librarians undertaking embedded initiatives, par- and opportunities for collaborations across cam-
ticularly when the projects involve working with pus. Embedding in a class as a librarian requires
large populations such as freshmen. However, increased knowledge of course, department, and
many of the librarians you will hear from here institution-level goals, as well as facility with a va-
use the lessons they learned from close interaction riety of pedagogical techniques. Librarians must
with a small group of freshmen to gain insight on consider information literacy objectives as well
larger issues and trends. In Chapter Four, Austra- as the primary instructor’s student learning ob-
lian librarians Craig Milne and Jennifer Thomas jectives when designing an embedded project. A
reveal that an initial investment of time in creat- scaffolded program of embedding across a depart-
ing a strong first-year embedded program can save ment’s offerings requires an in-depth understand-
future time in preparation and instruction. The ing of curriculum goals and performance assess-
knowledge librarians gain from small embedded ments. The librarian must consider at what points
initiatives has the potential to inform more tradi- in a major field of study to introduce appropriate
tional library instruction for the broader campus information skills and resources to students. Many
population. of the librarians here found that after collaborating
Librarians are also successfully embedding to embed themselves in one class, they increased
themselves and their work in academic depart- their visibility in departments and were asked to
ments, in senior capstone courses and at the mas- participate in more courses and even in planning
ter’s and PhD levels. Making librarians available future goals and objectives of the curriculum. The
to provide in-depth help over time as students ex- more ambitious the program of embedding, the
plore subject-specific resources or complete their more opportunities arise for the libraries to be visi-
literature review is invaluable to them. Chapters ble and persuasive influence across the curriculum.
Twelve and Thirteen describe successful examples Librarians are seeing a trend toward declin-
of librarians and teaching faculty partnering in ing reference interactions at the same time we
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introduction ix
face dramatically increasing demand for instruc- ing even more literature on assessing embedded
tion. The opportunity to shift our focus toward models, and how best to manage concerns such as
embedded librarianship has arrived, and we hope staffing and scalability. There is so much more to
this book can serve as an introduction to models the story of embedded librarianship yet to be writ-
of successful programs. We look forward to see- ten.
Cass Kvenild & Kaijsa Calkins
nOtES
1. Barbara Dewey, “The embedded librarian: strategic campus collaborations,” Resource Sharing & Information
Networks 17:1/2 (2004): 5–17.
2. Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) “Standards for distance learning library services,”
(2008) http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/standards/guidelinesdistancelearning.cfm
